Roberto de Zerbi has said he wants Tottenham to start playing like they did under former boss Ange Postecoglou.
Spurs finished fifth in Postecoglou’s first season before a polemic campaign saw them drop to 17th in the Premier League but lift their first trophy in 17 years by winning the 2025 Europa League Final.
That triumph was not enough to save Postecoglou from the sack but his successor, Thomas Frank, lasted just eight months before Igor Tudor won just one of his seven games in charge spanning only 44 days as interim boss.
De Zerbi is renowned for an expansive style of play previously seen in the Premier League at Brighton but the Italian is urging Spurs to mimic the front-foot approach Postecoglou adopted during his two seasons in charge.
So-called “Angeball” divided opinion lost 22 league games in his final season but De Zerbi said: “I want to keep the ball. I want to see again the Tottenham I watched with Postecoglou because in the first season, when I was in my second season with Brighton, there was Postecoglou here with a lot of these players.
“It was one of the best teams in terms of quality of play. With Pedro Porro, with [Destiny] Udogie, [Micky] Van Der Ven and [Cristian] Romero. I would like to see [it] again.”
De Zerbi is reportedly earning £12 million a year at Spurs and sources have told ESPN the 46-year-old is set to receive a substantial survival bonus if they stay up but he insisted he was not motivated by financial incentives.
“You can find the right answer in my history because I left a lot of money in my life,” he said.
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“Money never changed my focus on my work. I was in Marseille. Marseille was a special place. I didn’t say goodbye yet to my former fans, my former club because I didn’t want to make any point. In that moment, it was good to stay at home.
“For me, it is not a problem, this situation for Tottenham. When you come in this club, you are not to decide depending on the situation in that moment, you have to have a longer vision. Normally now the focus is on this season, these seven games, to keep [in the] Premier League and then we will see.”
